Remaining stable in an unstable world

November 23, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

Making positive change, Success & victory

We live in volatile times. Things that were once icons, pillars and immovable structures are changing overnight. Long-entrenched governments topple in hours. Peace quickly turns into riots and war zones spontaneously erupt. Yet, today’s unstable times were prophesied thousands of years ago.

God speaks of a time (I believe we’re there now) when people will “call evil good and good evil”. At a time like this, people without deep convictions will change their values, standards and way of living like the wind. We inherit our beliefs from our parents which are then molded my popular culture and social norms. They are further affected by our intimacy (or lack thereof) with God.

Anchored in Truth

Giving in to the pressures of today’s worldliness will only lead to instability. Unstable people are not grounded in the truth of the Gospel because it hasn’t become the foundation of their lives. They don’t have the anchor of the word to give them a deeper conviction than the inferior and immoral beliefs they’re being bombarded with daily. They don’t realize that they lack a moral compass. As it says in Matthew 7:13b: “…wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” In other words, the majority opinion is most often wrong!

However, people with a biblical world view and strong faith in God are usually stable. They aren’t vulnerable to the changing morals of the world. Because their lifestyle is established on God’s word, they’re unfortunately branded as old-fashioned and out of touch with the times.

But Jesus says in Matthew 5:10&11: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.”

The majority opinion today is anti-God and that mindset has crept into the 21st century Christian church. We have developed a compromised gospel to appease the marginal Christian and make friends with the world.

Preachers won’t speak biblical truth for fear of offending the very people they’re called to liberate with God’s word. The fear of the Lord has been replaced with the fear of man, but God is looking for people like you and me to shout from the rooftops what He has revealed in our hearts.

Will the real church please stand up!

Will the true church (Christ-like people) please stand up and be heard? God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. Spiritual warfare is at its highest since the beginning of time because it’s Satan’s last stand. He is throwing whatever he has left at the church, but God is using this season to identify and hand-pick His remnant church to usher in the second coming of Jesus.

Please don’t give in. to the pressure that this upside-down world is throwing at you. keep standing! Ephesians 5:13 says: “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Ask yourself, “Am I stable in my convictions concerning God’s way of life for me? Or am I easily swayed by the immoral standards that are intellectually and logically presented to me, even by our government?” God is looking for stable people in an unstable world to build his kingdom. What will your choice be?…

The Esau Syndrome

May 11, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

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Making positive change, Relationship with God, Success & victory

Esau, the first born, came in from hunting and said to his brother Jacob who was cooking pottage, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Look, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?” So he swore an oath, selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. The Bible summarizes this heated exchange with one cold statement: “So Esau despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:34).

Position, Privilege and Power

As the firstborn and heir to his father’s fortune, Esau was to come into Position, Privilege and Power. That was his birthright. However, he wasn’t willing to wait.

Every day the enemy tempts us to compromise future blessings to meet an immediate emotional need. How often we Christians fall prey to the Esau Syndrome! How often we sell our place of Position, Privilege and Power to meet a carnal craving, a lustful appetite! Yet, only God satisfies.

Just like Esau, we reason, “What good is my birthright? I’m hungry now! Why wait? I need someone to love me now!” We see an opportunity to get what we think God wants to give us…but our way. So we close our eyes and leap into sin, emptiness and spiritual death, trying to meet our need instead of relying on God. Thus, the Esau Syndrome has crippled the body of Christ and made us dysfunctional.

No Shortcut to God’s Best

In God’s house there are no elevators, only steps. You must go through the steps He ordains in order to inherit the blessings He has prepared.

I know so many Christians who have promises from God, but they are not willing to allow God to take them on His journey in order to receive them. How sad that is! They end up losing everything for a pot of beans.

It’s like the weight lifter who wants the bulging muscles, so he takes steroids. He looks good on the outside, but inside his body is being destroyed.

Exodus 13:17 says that God led the children of Israel “not in the way of the Philistines.” There was a way to the promised land that was quicker, but in the shortcut, they would have dealt with the lusts of the flesh and they might have gone back to Egypt and into bondage.

Stop Selling Your Birthright

God is re-training us to trust Him rather than ourselves. He wants us to be led by His Spirit and not by our emotions.

Church, stop living out of your soul. Stop selling your birthright. Any time you try to be self-sufficient rather than God-sufficient, you go right back into bondage like before. Allow God to take you on the journey that will mature you. Don’t fall for the devil’s counterfeit. No shortcut will produce a Christ-like result in your life.

Have we not yet come to realize that, unless God meets our need, we will be left hungry and thirsty? Have we not hit enough dead ends to know that God has to bring it to pass? It takes a mature Christian to say no to the lusts of our flesh and yes to Jesus. Let’s be disciplined. Let it not be said of us, “So they despised their birthright.”…

Take back control of your life!

May 4, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

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Success & victory

When a person who has offended and hurt you in the past suddenly comes into your presence, how do you react? For many of us, our mood immediately changes and we do everything possible to remove ourselves from their presence.

Past offenses left undealt-with make us vulnerable, allowing other people to control our life. We become slaves to our own feelings and emotions. If we don’t break free from the pain caused by those past offenses, our history will always show up in our destiny.

Living in the past hinders what God planned for our future, and also keeps God’s present and future blessings on layaway. Every time we react to emotions connected to those past hurts, its like eating dead things over and over again. Stop and release your enemies by forgiving.

Look at the birds

When you are constantly reminded and controlled by things that happened in the past, you are eating stuff you ought to be releasing. It won’t produce peace or joy. It just weighs you down.

Resentment makes us like a chicken that is earthbound because it can only fly a short distance. That’s because a chicken eats dead things (even its own feces) and is weighed down. In contrast, the eagle flies miles high and only eats things that are alive.

Holding on to offense does the same thing to us. We lose control of our life and give it to the person who offended us. It’s time to take back control by refusing to internalize what we ought to be releasing!

God gave us the ability to purge ourselves from offenses. His nature to forgive has now become our nature as Christians. It’s not unusual that the world struggles in this area. They are not equipped like we are.

Weakness vs. wickedness

Yet, why do Christians struggle? I believe it’s because we confuse wickedness with weakness. The person offending us doesn’t have to be wicked. Many times they’re just weak, unable to resist the temptation that caused them to make a wrong choice.

We should all sympathize because we all suffer from the same weakness. The problem is: Because we are the victim of their wrong decisions, we consider them wicked and hold on to the offense (and continually eat dead things).

The heavy price of unforgiveness

Our unforgiveness doesn’t affect them—but us. We want them to pay a heavy price for hurting us, but by dwelling on hurtful memories we are drinking poison. We are “stopped up”, spiritually hurting ourselves. Just like our natural body, when we don’t release what goes in us, our health is seriously affected. The solution? Purge ourselves by forgiving our offenders because we recognize their weakness is not wickedness.

God’s word says mercy will triumph over judgment. Sure, they may deserve to be punished, but so do you and I. But every day of our life, God’s mercy spares us the just punishment that we rightfully deserve!

Take back control of your life and allow God to bring you into the great destiny He has for you. Stop living like a chicken and start soaring like an eagle!

We love to hear from you! If this blog has been a blessing to you, please let us know by commenting below!…

Begin at the end.

April 27, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

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Finding significance in life, Making positive change, Success & victory

What would you like your friends say about you when you die? That you were a person who loved God and loved people… that you were compassionate, always putting the needs of others before your own? Of course, you do! Unfortunately, for some of us that won’t be the case because we never planned the end from the beginning!

You see, when a Hollywood producer makes a movie, he or she always has the end in mind before they start production. They design the different segments of the movie, making sure they all lead to the desired ending. If one of the segments doesn’t fit the ending they planned, they pull it out and create one that does fit.

If you and I want our lives to have a great ending, we must likewise plan the different segments of our lives to produce the desired result.

Pay now and play later

I like to say it this way: If we pay now, we can play later. But that’s the opposite of what most people do! Good planning calls for great discipline and keeping the end well in sight. Like a movie producer, you and I get to control each act and dictate how it ends.

The key to a good ending is sticking to the script: the Word of God. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith; He is also the Director of our life, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:2.

An illustration

I heard a story of an old man who sat on a park bench every afternoon, reading the newspaper. One day a young man sat next to him and, after a few minutes, leaned over to the older gentleman and said, “Sir I’m sorry to interrupt you, but do you have the time?” After a long pause, the old man turned, said “No” and went on reading the paper.

The stunned young man interrupted him and said, “Sir, you have on a watch and I don’t understand why you would say ‘no’ to my request. Did I not ask you politely, or did I offend you in some way?”

The old man said, “Son, you seem like a very nice young man. If I told you the time, we may have gotten into a conversation. Then I might have come to like you and invited you to my house for dinner. When you came over, because you are a handsome young man, my single daughter, who is beautiful, probably would have been attracted to you and you to her. You’d ask her out and there would be a good chance that you would ask her to marry you. Well, I don’t want my daughter to marry somebody who can’t afford a watch.”

Keep the perfect ending in mind

Now that’s a little radical, but the truth is this: You’ll never reach your desired end unless you begin and arrange the rest of your life’s journey with the end in mind. God showed Jeremiah as a young man what his life’s journey was to look like, and Jeremiah kept that vision before him. Surely, our destiny can also be fulfilled if we keep our end goal in mind at all times.

Think about how you would like your obituary to read and the legacy you want your family to continue. Will the unfolding of your life’s script bring glory to God? Take the time today and plan your ending. Then begin at the end!…

Does a habit have you?

April 21, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

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Getting past the past, Making positive change, Success & victory

Everyone has habits, both good and bad. A habit is a behavior acquired by frequent repetition. An addiction, on the other hand, is a compulsive dependence on an object, an action or a feeling, resulting in major life problems.

Good habits reflect God’s character and strengthen our character. Bad habits lead us astray, drag us down and affect our lives in negative ways.

Scripture uses words like bondage, slavery and stronghold to describe what it means to be a prisoner of sin. Maybe you aren’t enslaved to something as destructive as drugs or alcohol, but you may be held captive to some seemingly harmless activity or attitude. “….For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him, (2 Peter 2:19b, NIV).”

Heart attitudes like anger, criticism, greed and prejudice can be just as damaging as hard-core addictions to drugs, pornography, gambling and eating disorders. Only when our habits move from pleasurable to painful, do we desire and maybe even get ready for change.

The first step

The first step is to acknowledge what’s fueling your negative habit. God created us with a desire for a loving, personal relationship with Him, one in which He meets all our deepest needs. Bad habits and addictions develop when we attempt to meet our God-given needs for love, security and significance through an unhealthy dependence on people, things and activities. With the help of the enemy, wrong thinking takes root in us and things become idols that take the place of God.

Satan uses shame and condemnation to keep us in bondage. He makes us think that God is fed-up and disgusted with us, so we won’t turn to Him for help.

No condemnation

In John chapter 8, when a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He didn’t condemn her. He showed her that even her would-be executioners weren’t without sin. He simply said, “Go and sin no more.”

As her sin lay bare before the Lord, I believe something supernatural happened in her heart. She sensed His love, forgiveness and acceptance and was set free from the lies she believed. No longer defined by her behavior, she received a new beginning. Get the picture?

Stop throwing stones at yourself and turn to Jesus, and keep turning every minute of every day. God brings conviction which brings repentance, rooted in right thinking and the power to change—not condemnation.

From bondage to freedom

How do we move from bondage to freedom? It takes faith and trust. Believe that God has not condemned you for your bad behavior. Trust His love for you, and the truth of His word. His truth sets you free!

Will power alone ultimately brings failure. But, if your desire is to surrender to God and let Him change you, you’ll find incredible peace, power and freedom.

If you’re feeling defeated, put down your stones and turn to Jesus. He loves you and He alone can give you the power to walk away from anything that holds you in bondage. Let go and take His hand!

If this blog post has been a blessing to you, please let us know by leaving a comment below!…

Discover the real you

April 6, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi

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Success & victory

For so long, our lives have been driven by the desire to please others and gain their acceptance. Unfortunately, that lifestyle causes us to lose sight of our true identity (who God created us to be).

Not knowing our identity results in joylessness, depression and lack of fulfillment in our jobs and relationships and ultimately an overall unhappy life!

This issue often starts in childhood. With good intentions, our parents try to mold us into the people they want us to be. They reward behaviors that fit their expectations and punish what doesn’t.

This sets the pattern early in life of denying the real person inside and living the “big lie”. We eventually alter our personalities and behaviors to fit in and gain the acceptance of whomever we’re with.

The price of self-denial

We pay a price for living the big lie, because not knowing who we are is a tremendous loss. As Christians, when we read “Put off the old man and put on the new,” we reject the wrong person! We miss out on being transformed into the likeness and image of Jesus.

That’s why we experience chaos in our inner world: fear, anger, jealousy, inferiority, to name a few. We hide and deny that world even exists inside us. Or we cover it up with religious activity like joining the choir and going to church all the time. Or we blame others or circumstances for our discomfort and emotional instability.

Yet, just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He called you and me out of the grave and brought us into new life. Jesus came to set us free from slavery to Satan, so that we are free to live the life for which He created us. It’s high time that we shed the grave clothes!

The road to self-discovery

Here is how the Holy Spirit can lead you on this journey of self-discovery:

• Don’t deny your feelings. Instead, discover why you feel the way you do. Your feelings reveal the hurts, the wounds and the many times you’ve exchanged your true self for the person everyone wanted you to be. Invite Jesus into your inner world to transform you.

• Let God reveal His love for the real you. You’ve often crucified him or her instead of recognizing how valuable that person is to God. Remember, the first commandment is to love God with all our hearts and then to love others as we love ourselves. Ask the Holy Spirit to help in this. Stop believing Satan’s lies about your true value.

• Cultivate lost and forgotten dreams and passions buried in your heart. Don’t deny them any longer. Be strong enough to say “no” to things you used to say “yes” to. People-pleasing eventually disappears when you discover and consistently live the life God created you to live.

In conclusion, the first step to a successful Christian life is to discover the real you. But it doesn’t end there. Secondly, let God transform the real you into a mature Christian. Aren’t you tired of living the big lie? Start the journey to discovering the real you today. You won’t be disappointed!

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